Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-01-13
THE PARTNER.

clerk in the banking firm of Hodgson,
Dunford & Parr, St. Swithin's Lane. Lom
bard street. 1t was neither very re.
sponsible nor a very lucrative position,
and Tommy (as all his friends called
him) longed, as perhaps fifty thousand
young men in similar situation in Lon
don are longing at this moment, for a
chance Of turning his brains to better
account than adding up columns of fig
ures and copying entries from one big
book into another. The chance did not
come, but Tommy did not despair; and
there was this difference between him
and the great majority of his fellow
prisoners of the desk-he had the pluck
to work away manfully at whatever he
thought might possibly some day help
him to better his position, even though
he could not see exactly how it was to
be done. With this end in view he
studied French, German and Italian;
and he did everything he could to pick
up information as to the financial cir.
cumstances of the customers of the bank.
He scraped acquaintance with every
clerk employed by those who had &C.
counts at the bank, as far as he possibly
could, and picked up in time an idea,
more or less accurate, as to the CONNER
cial status of most of them.
One day he happened to be ct lunch
in his favorite restaurant, when an &C.
quintance named Darling came in and
sat down beside him. After q little
casual conversation, Darling asked him
to let him know of any vacant clerkship
he might hear of.
II will, certainly, old fellow" return.
ed Tommy; "butI hope you haven't got
into row with Appleton" Frederick
Appleton was Darling's brother.in.law,
and he was also the secretary of the
Mudford County Chemical Company, in
whose county-house young Darling had
. subordinate post.)
'Oh no, nothing Of the kind. !" returned
Darling; and then he changed the sub.
ject.
On his way back to the bank after
lunch, Mathers asked himself why Oar.
ling should leave his present situation.
He had q capital prospect there-his
brother-in.law being the secretary; and
there was no disagreement between him
and his influential relative. Could it be
that Darling had had hint from his
brother.in-law that the Chemical Com
pany was getting into shallow water,
and that it beloved him to be looking
out for another situation? 1t seemed
more than likely; and young Mathers
determined to act at once. He slipped
into the bank parlor that AFTERNOON,
hoping to find the junior partner, Mr..
Parr, q good-natured sort of man, who
was not likely to snub him for volun-
teering information. To his disappoint-
ment. he found only Mr.. Hodgson, a
sour tempered old man, who was strug-
Cling into his overcoat, preparatory to
leaving the Office for the day.
"Well. growled the banker, what
do you want?"
Tommy was on the point of saying
that he had come to speak to Mr.. Parr,
but in q moment he had changed his
mind.
II heard something to day SIR" he re.
piled. ''that made me think that the
Mudford Company are not in very
good way.
"weli. what of that! what's that to
me!''
''Nothing, sir; only l thought there
was no harm in letting you know"
''Anything of that kind you can say
to Mr.. Parkinson" answered the old
gentleman as he seized his umbrella and
xyo 1Ilal 1our tho ououo
Tommy felt snubbed; but he did not
mind that much. He had done what he
wanted, brought himself under the per-
sonal notice of one of the partners. If
he had given the hint to Parkinson, the
head cashier, Parkinson, not he, would
have had all the credit of it. He re-
Z red to his place among the other clerks
little sore at the rebuff, yet not en-
tirely dissatisfied.
On his way home Mr.. Hodgson re-
membered that the bank held some
shares of the Mudford Company as
security for the balance of the account
of one of their customers who was DEEM |
ed rather shaky. Next morning, he
called Tommy into his room and ques- |
toned him as to thepature of his infor-
nation.
"Perhaps you will excuse my entering |
into that sir" said Tommy, with the
utmost coolness.
Mr.. Hodgson dismissed Mathers
to his work with dissatisfied grunt and
. wave of his hand, and Immediately set |
to work to have the shares Of the Mund-
ford Company exchanged for other se-
curi,ies.
Tommy, who managed to know most
of what hdppened at the bank. noted |
the fact and rejoiced.
Within six weeks the shareholders of
the Nudford Chemical Company met |
and resolved to 20 into liquidation; and
though Mr.. Hodgson did not think it